Delayed launch, coronavirus pandemic may affect iPhone 12 shipment: Report

Apple is expected to launch four new smartphones under its iPhone 12 series this year, and a news report claims that Apple would ship 63-68 million units of the new iPhones in the second half this year.

This would be a drop of 5 million units compared to the number of iPhone 11 units Apple shipped last year.

The projection comes as the timings for volume production and the official launch of the new iPhone series are likely to lag four to six weeks behind original schedules affected by the coronavirus pandemic, reports DigiTimes.

In addition, if WeChat, a Chinese multi-purpose app developed by Tencent, is no longer available on the App Store in China or pre-installed on the new iPhone devices, shipments of all iPhone products this year will be nearly 10 per cent lower than the original estimate.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is planning to launch LTE iPhone 12 models in October, while 5G models may follow in November.